It is a website run by Bradford Council and acts as an electronic portal between Care Providers and the Local Authority's back office contract management system (ContrOCC).
Financial Support Service - Provider Portal
The provider portal will allow all non-residential providers to be able to submit information about the actual services delivered in the week compared to the planned level of service. Currently this information is recorded by providers in Excel spreadsheets called Payment Claim Forms (PCF’s).
Implementing the provider portal to replace PCF’s is also an important aspect of being able to move away from annual billing of customers assessed contributions and introducing 4-weekly billing.
Making this change in invoicing ensures the department is Care Act compliant and be able to meet the requirement of the deferred charging reforms. What we charge will be linked to services received in the previous four weeks rather than over a 52-weeks period.
As a result, there will be less reconciliation of invoices during the financial year when there are amendments need to the person contribution that is linked to changes in the amount of chargeable services having been received.
Providers are expected to complete the actuals in the portal each week by close of business on Tuesday. Delays inputting the data will impact on timely 4-weekly invoicing of customers who have to contribute towards the cost of the adult social care services they have received each week.
To support the prompt payment of variations and adjustments, providers should ensure that they submit the ‘Request for Adjustment of Current Services Form’ as per the terms of the 2023-30 Locality contract ‘Providers must submit the Request for the Adjustment Form within fourteen (14) days of the Provider increasing or decreasing the service’.
Adjustment forms must be submitted within fourteen (14) days of a TEMPORARY change lasting more than seven (7) days and for PERMANENT changes to the care package. Adjustment forms submitted for increases to services later than fourteen (14) days after the start date of the increase in service, if approved by a Council Assessor will only be backdated for payment to the submission date of the adjustment form. For further information, please see ‘Schedule 2’ payment process in the terms and conditions of the Home Support Locality Contract.
Providers should complete a ‘Request for Adjustment to Current Service Form’ via the online link: https://onlineforms.bradford.gov.uk/ufs/CHANGE_OF_PROVIDER.eb.
Helpful Content
Functional Content
Logging in to the portal (and password reset)
If you have forgotten your password or are locked out, you will need to email provider.portal@bradford.gov.uk to request the account unlocking,
Your account will be locked if you have not accessed the Provider Portal within the last 90 days.
If you wish to reset your password and/or your six-digit security code, you can do this from the Provider Portal home page.
Generate Actuals
Inputting Actuals
(Variations)
Actuals can be input manually or by exporting and importing a CSV file.
To view guidance on inputting actuals using a CSV file, click here
Inputting Actuals Manually
See drop-down options below for examples of the different types of actual submissions
Importing Actuals Using CSV File
The file details the following:
Service – Name of service provider
Service level – Single-handed, double-handed etc
SS Ref – This is what you will use to identify the service user you are making any amendments to. For guidance on how to use VLOOKUP to include the name of the person, click here
Date – This relates to the week the actuals are for. The format is Year/Month/Date.
Weekly Actual Quantity – This is the numbers of hours that were actually provided to the service user
Weekly Frustrated Quantity – The number of hours for calls not provided due to hospital admission.
****This should only be used for Hospital Week 1 & 2****
These will be payable but it is important that they are not included on the ‘Weekly Actual Quantity’
Weekly Missed Quantity – This is the number of hours not provided e.g. calls had been cancelled in advance or the carer was unable to attend as expected
Weekly Extra Quantity – This is the number of additional hours provided in addition to the expected planned service
Weekly Number Of Visits – Do not amend this figure regardless of whether full planned service was provided
Comments – This must be completed with the reason(s) why the full planned service was not provided or where claims for additional services are being made. Failure to complete this may result in payment being rejected.
Exceptions
Confirm Actuals
Checklist
- Generated Actuals
- Amended actuals where necessary
- Provided comment where submission is anything different to planned service
- Reviewed exceptions and amended/corrected where necessary
- Confirmed actuals
Communication
Disputes
See drop-down options below for further guidance on responding
Using Reports
A request for a permanent change to planned home support hours or a temporary change for more than 7 days requested by a provider. Adjustments can be for ending services (moving into care home, deceased etc), increases (including changes from single handed to double handed support) and reductions in weekly hours.
Requests for adjustments from providers need to be approved by the Independence Advice Hub (formerly called Access), BEST or a Social Work team. Providers should complete a ‘Request for Adjustment to Current Service Form’ (formerly SS243 Form) via the online link: https://onlineforms.bradford.gov.uk/ufs/CHANGE_OF_PROVIDER.eb
Even if a change is likely to be temporary and not permanent, a ‘Request for Adjustment to
Current Service Form’ must be submitted if the temporary change is provided for 8 days or
more.
A temporary change to planned home support hours requested by a provider, either an increase or decrease, for example because of short term illness, family carer being away on holiday, service user going on holiday etc. Providers should add any variations to the Provider Portal, you must add a comment to the comments box stating the reason for the
variation. Increases to planned services are monitored and processed by Support Options and are paid for up to one week. If an increase to planned service exceeds 7 days, then providers must submit a ‘Request for Adjustment of Current Service Form’ to the Support Options Team, increases to planned services exceeding 7 days will be rejected for payment in the Provider
Portal.
Providers should always note in the Provider Portal the reason they have delivered an
increased or reduced service in the comments box. Failure to do this will result in delays in
payments for increased support or potential complaints from service users where support has been reduced and they are being charged by the Council for the higher amount.
You must not submit any adjustments and variations for services that are not part of the
planned support because they will not have been identified as an assessed need as part of a service users support plan. For example, you should not start providing domestic services, social inclusion or sitting services if these services are not part of the existing planned hours.
If you identify that a service user is socially isolated or there is a concern around healthy and safety in the home you should raise these concerns with the allocated Social Worker or Home Support Reviewing Team.
To support the prompt payment of variations and adjustments, providers should ensure that they submit the ‘Request for Adjustment of Current Services Form’ as per the terms of the 2023-30 Locality contract ‘Providers must submit the Request for the Adjustment Form within fourteen (14) days of the Provider increasing or decreasing the service’.
Any Request for an Adjustment Form submitted for service increases after fourteen (14) days of the start of the increase in service will be paid from the date of submission and not backdated if it is approved by an authorised officer of the Council. The Council will respond promptly to requests for adjustments.
The provider must have processes and procedures in place that meet the business requirements of the Council, a mechanism that supports the completion of the Provider Portal so that they are completed accurately and submitted no later than 5 working days after the end of each weekly period.
An individual online form must be completed for each service user that providers are requesting an
adjustment for.
If there is an increase and a reduction for a service user, starting on the same date, the request
should be submitted on one individual online form. If there are different start dates for the increase
and reduction, then two separate individual online forms need to be completed.
Do's & Don'ts
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Don’t |
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Ensure submissions are in by close of business Tuesday |
Use Frustrated claims for anything other than hospital retainer (Week 1 and Week 2) |
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Confirm actuals in Scheduled Payments |
Submit extras when adjustment forms have been submitted and accepted |
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Provide detailed comment when claim is for anything other than the planned service |
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Who to contact and when
Password Reset - Please email provider.portal@bradford.gov.uk
Access to Portal required -
Service line incorrect -
Service ended/client died -
Payment query -
You cannot confirm actuals for a week where the payment has already been processed.
Where you find that you are providing home support to a service user and their payments are missing from the Provider Portal, please e-mail Support-Options@bradford.gov.uk with service users details i.e. NHS number, full name, address and post code and Support Options will look into.
You may need to generate the actuals. This could be a new and/or backdated service line.